Category: Music

Music – Live vs. Studio

Over on goodhodgkins, the writer has collected songs from the blogosphere (stupid word) that have a live version that sounds better than the studio version. One fun bit of data, one of the songs he notes is Radiohead’s Like Spinning Plates, where he finds the live performance much better. The performance he speaks of was the September 11th, 2001 performance in Berlin, where my friend Kevin and I were there for the very emotionaly charged show.

Word of advice though – If it’s a day of a huge national disaster, and it’s also your girlfriends birthday – Call her.

The Advantage – Elf Titled

The Advantage are back with their new sophomore album, “Elf Titled”. Being my favorite in the seemly ever growing category of NES cover bands, they have always stood out for their exacting precision to the actual music itself. No “interpretation” for them, but each of the band members each cover one of the NES’s 4 sound channels and they each reproduce the sound as best as possible.

They did an interview for the new album in the Sacramento News and Review that’s worth reading.

Pandora

I wish I could remember where I found the link to Pandora.

What is Pandora? It’s an incredible webapplication that answers the question, “If I like xxx band, then what are other bands I might like?”, and in the end Pandora does a great job of answering this question. It’s simple to use. You enter a band name, it’s music engine looks for music that is either by that band or possibly sounds like it. Easy, but the system is a learning system, in that you can give the song it plays a thumbs up or down based on how you like it, and how well it meets with your band criteria. It’s almost like a radio station that plays music you like and if you don’t it’s easy to skip. But the great part is that it introduces you to bands and artists that you would never have heard otherwise.

Feeling mellow – put on your Death Cab for Cutie “station”, feeling like going dancing – put on your Daft Punk station. Try it… It’s replaced internet radio for me while I work, and I’ve heard quite a few bands I’d like to learn more about.

Music Files – V1.0

Been listening to a bit of new music recently:

Demon Days Demon Days – Gorillaz I was a big fan of the Gorillaz first release, enjoying both the concept of the fake band of performers, as well as the great mix of styles of music that made up the entire album. Demon Days does not dissapoint as a follow up album at all. With the first single “Feel Good Inc.” stuck in my head literaly for days I knew I had to hear the rest of the album. Even more layers, even more funk, rock, and a bit of hip hop to keep you going. Been playing a ton on the iPod for sure. The new video for Feel Good Inc. made me miss the old videos agian, guess I’ll have to go and hunt them down.

Human After AllHuman After All – Daft Punk Good old Daft Punk. Been a fan since the days of “Around the World” and their last album, Discovery, was one of those albums where listening the whole way through is worth and frequently done. With their third release I’m a little bit dissapointed though. The first single is catchy and growing on me, titled “Robot Rock”. The rest of the album basically takes the same tack and repeats the title of the song in a computer voice, over and over and over. Not that they havn’t done this before (Around the World), but there are less strictly instrumental songs, and no songs that have “lyrics” as much as the few that populated Discovery. Maybe I set my hopes too high, and I have a feeling some of the songs may grow on me, but it remains to be seen.

Hot FussHot Fuss – The Killers Now this has become one of my favorite albums I’ve heard this year in a very, very short time. It sound seems to take the voice of the guy from The London Suede, with a bit of 80’s electronic, and a bit of modern British rock and mix them together. The album has amazed me with it’s songs, it’s sticking power, and the depth of some of the tunes. Where you notice new layers the more you listen. I get the feeling that we’ll be hearing more singles come from the album than the “Mr. Brightside” and “Smile Like You Mean It”. There is just a lot there. Get it. Seriously.

Summer Darling

An old friend of mine is in a band. I’ve watched him from his days as a drummer who couldn’t keep time to being a stunning lyricist and songwriter. His band, Summer Darling has just released their new album.

On the website they have a couple of songs available for listen as well as a couple here on Pure Volume. It’s your indie rock music, but not as whiny as some of it tends to be. Listen. Enjoy.

Linky linky

– Cnet has a great article on how the iPod is undermining Microsoft’s efforts at being the DRM king (DRM = Digital Rights Management). With iPods being the hip new accessory these days, people are complaining that the Microsoft encoded files included on some newer releases, won’t play on their iPod. When consumers speak, sometimes, just sometimes, the industry might listen. Not that having Apple as a DRM overlord is better than Microsoft though.

– From the design culture has nothing better to do dept.: a coffee mug with a key so you can prevent others from using your mug while you are away. Don’t you feel better now?

– Looks like the Windows XP Service Pack 2 will be late. Should we be suprised? It’s optomistic that Microsoft says its next generation of Windows will be out by 2007, but really, shouldn’t we fix what we’ve got before making new holes?

– You must go to Orisinal. This guy has a knack for flash games that are easy to play, wonderful to look at and cute without being “cute”. Play a few, worth the time.

Bitnami